Note From the Board Scott Genzman – June 2025

Fellow Brothers and Sisters,

What does God mean when He suggests in Philippians 4:7 “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus?” I’m sure we could all have a great conversation about what that looks like and the times we have experienced peace. We could also agree that when we are walking closely with God it is the best possible place to be. Trouble is, if you’re like me, you can vacillate from depending on and trusting in God and feeling His peace but then trying to do life in your own strength and getting all spun up again.

I’ve decided that I don’t like to be spun up and nervous. So, I’ve been actively trying to find ways to “be still and know that He is God.” Sometimes I do exactly that. I just stop and ponder on the things of God. However, in a busy life it’s not always easy to find time to just stop and focus on Him. It’s easier for my mind to wander into the day to day worries and cares. But I’m learning that if I open my mind and heart to how God is moving in our world – specific things He is doing in people’s lives – I find Him and I see His presence more clearly and experience His peace more deeply.

One of the places I find God is going to the Unite 4 Africa web page under the “News” tab. In the drop down menu are the letters from the regional leadership of Unite 4 Africa – the people who are on the front lines seeing first hand the amazing transformative work God is doing. I read their stories and then, as I go about my day, I focus my mind on those stories of what God is doing. And, instead of my mind wandering, I find it more often wondering how God uses all of us involved with Unite 4 Africa in such incredible ways.

How does the leadership of Unite 4 Africa bring 1800 people in one region together to be baptized in one day? How is a young man who recently accepted Jesus led by God to strap a pulpit on his back and walk 50 miles to preach the Gospel to remote villages? What would I tell someone who fears for their life because they preach the Gospel to do to allay their fears? How different will an orphan’s life turn out to be because he or she was given a goat and taught how to raise a herd? How many people will come to Christ after leaders are trained and sent out to the “fields white unto harvest?” And how will their lives and generations to come be transformed as a result?

Everything that I have the joy of hearing about and reading from Unite 4 Africa causes me to say to myself, God you are so good, so amazing and beyond comprehension. If you are moving so powerfully in these people’s lives, you must be doing so in my life. This in turn causes me to look for God, to see Him in my life. When I do, it gives me a much more positive attitude – one anchored in the truth of what He can accomplish in my life. This renewed perspective helps me to not spin up and get nervous about trivial concerns but to trust in Him and find the peace He wants us all to have.

When you support this ministry with your prayers and giving you are an integral part of all that God is doing through Unite 4 Africa. I would encourage you to experience the stories on Unite 4 Africa’s website and newsletter. Those stories will help renew your heart and mind and cause you to look toward God and rediscover his peace. I pray that you are able to rest in knowing God more deeply by experiencing what he is doing in so many hearts. And as you do, I believe you’ll find his peace more and more often each and every day until we all find eternal peace in Heaven.

Scott Genzman
Board member Unite 4 Africa